Brooks argues once again that it is the professional class, not the angry MAGA voters, who are really responsible for the threat to liberal democracy. As he sees it, the professional class–blue people–created the knowledge economy, which devalues the skills of red people. They profited immensely from this change, but refused to share the benefits of the economic change with the less educated red people. They further stacked the deck in the favor by marrying each other and refusing to take drugs and get divorced. The red people–the hapless victims in this scenario–have responded quite appropriately by voting for Trump and trying to burn it down. What else could they do?
Let’s deconstruct this argument:
- Blue people did not set out to create today’s economy; it just evolved as the result of billions of individual decisions that were made by capitalists all over the world. The notion of some sort of a conspiracy in favor of the professional class makes about as much sense as the “Long March.”
- In any event, the numbers show that the professional class has only benefited slightly from the evolution of the economy. The big winners were the one percent, not teachers, journalists, and bureaucrats. They are, of course, predominantly Republicans.
- The undoubted failure of our political system to provide compensation for the victims of technological change and globalization is not due to any actions of the professional class, which generally sympathizes with their plight. It is the result of stonewalling by the Republican Party, which rejects both federal programs that would benefit reactionary workers and tax increases on its donor class, the principal winners of neoliberalism.
- Brooks, as a member of the professional class, should do penance for the “sins” of his peers by moving out of the big city, wrecking his personal life, and becoming addicted to opiates. Does he really think we should be blamed for not destroying ourselves?
- Voting for a man who supports tax cuts and deregulation for rich businessmen, and who has no interest in reactionary workers except as cannon fodder for his campaign, is not a rational strategy for the victims of globalization and technological change.
In short, Brooks has misidentified the villains here. The fault lies with the Republican Party, not ourselves.